leonk

Cheers guys. Chris you know you're always welcome, make sure you bring your overalls though.

Another minor update. After much heartache and looking at all options, I came to the conclusion that the original bonnet was never going to be to my standard given the amount of damage it had to all the flanges. Added to this was damage done to it by the initial stripping company that they denied. The problem is that although very rigid as a complete bolted together bonnet, each individual panel is quite flimsey. This has marked a real low point in the restoration with the daunting prospect of having to shell out £7,000 on a new bonnet. When I'd given up all hope of finding a good secondhand one and looked at several that to me were only worth scrap, a guy on the Jag forum mentioned he was going to race his and was building a lightweight alloy panelled replica. A cheeky pm, a bit of haggling and a trip down to London with a Mercedes LWB Sprinter and I had a replacement bonnet from a US dry state car. I've started work on the bonnet, stripping it into its various components and then stripping them of paint. The smaller bits I can put in the blasting booth but the bigger panels have to be done by hand, The flat panels can't be blasted for fear of distorting them. It's a long and labour intensive job but at least I have some control of it this time. Wooden dolly made to support the wings to work on them. And as if by magic.... Bonnet centre section stripped and offered up. These were hand made and trimmed at the factory to fit each individual car. By the time of this photo it had already been on and off about 20 times and it's still not 100%. Going to have another go at the weekend when I'm in a better mood.

There was a guy on here who did it but for the life of me I can't remember who it was.

Alex, you mean it's all win no fee?

I have to confess that as well as two electric heaters, I have to put the big space heater on for 10 minutes before I can face going in there at the moment. Minus 3 at night here.

I keep seeing cars with these on round this neck of the woods . . . I have not stopped any one to ask if they are real or fake though :lol: That's just asking for a S.W.A.T. team to turn up.

isn't Halloween in October some time Could be worse....... Come to think of it, I'm sure SMD has something like this in his car.

I feel your pain. Try it on a car where every panel is made up of complex curves. Keep up the good work. Remember the hours spent now will show through at the end.

Interestingly, I See they've got a fixed head e type at "only £99,995" !!! Crazy pricing.

Interesting stuff. I'm surprised a few haven't ended up on some E bay scam, "buyer to arrange collection and shipping" Now there's a plan.......

I can't understand why you didn't tell her you needed to lose a bit of weight in the car to clear the bumps and ask her to walk the last 1/4 mile and you'd meet her there?? Simple, seems to me you didn't think it through. :-S

WBAC, simply sell your car on to used car dealers. Why not cut them out and phone around a few local used car lots like Ricey and see what they offer if you don't want to deal with the public. I'm sure they are always looking for clean stock.

It's a bit like asking your girlfriend / wife about her life before she met you. You'll never really know for sure. Good luck with your search, I'm sure you'll find something.

Could this not be done with a boroscope if you take the plugs out. I know there is a company in Knutsford that offer this service on 911s that are prone to bore scoring?

Good luck with it. I read in the paper today about a guy who made £2.6 million on there last year!! I like the bit of subliminal advertising "meet me under the stairs" Might have read it wrong!

"What's at Buxton?" http://www.buxtonraceway.com/drifting/

+ 1 Will you be at Buxton?

I think Experian are still doing their 30 day free trial for your credit report. I'm with them so that I get notified about any unusual activity.

Sarnie is your man, drop him a pm

Just do what everyone else does on there. Pay as you go 99p sim changed weekly, bogus contact details and paypal linked to their gran! Glad you are one of the few looking to do it properly.

Starting to take shape............at last.

Cheers Chris, I tell you what, all the removal of that sodding underseal & all the nooks & crannies has been soul destroying, wish I had paid the extra £££ & gone down the blasting route Looking good Darren. I know it was a pain but the draw back to blasting is that it won't touch the underseal unless it is very coarse and aggressive, in which case you risk panel distortion through heat. Although I had mine blasted I still had to remove all the underseal by hand. A lot of the box sections including the sills were left open and I still spent hours getting the sand out. Yours is a much more complex monocoque, it would have been a nightmare. Keep up the great work and posts.

The guys that repaired it said it was the continuous running that wrecks them, i.e not allowing them to build up pressure, cut out and rest. This way as I'm using air in one the other is running up to pressure, quick change over at the tool end and off again and so on. Touch wood, it seems to work. Oh I did ask about connecting two together but they said it wasn't advisable. Keep up the great work!

Sorry to hear about the compressor Darren, it was one of the first things I had to upgrade. To paraphrase the late great Mr Shelby, there is no substitute for CFM. I actually have two running now and switch between the two while the other cools down. Two airlines taped together for quick change.

That is in fantastic condition Darren. It's a pain of a job getting the underseal off so you have done really well.You are right to get some primer on it though.